RPO and Talent Management Blog by Ochre House | Ochre Talk

Changing times for recruitment vendors

Over the past 24 hours two things inspired me to write this blog.  Firstly, at the annual UK Recruiter Awards ceremony a certain large RPO provider was boo’ed repeatedly by members of the recruitment community as they were nominated for various industry awards and now this blog post. 

Both are examples of the (unnecessary) tension and misunderstanding that exists between RPO providers and traditional recruitment vendors.  This is not the first time I have seen this, and on each occasion I’ve been struck by how different our perspectives are on this issue.  Whenever the agency world comments on this, intentionally or through its actions, it assumes an inward looking stance.  It tries to makes sense of whether the rise of recruitment outsourcing or strategic resourcing partnerships are good or bad for them, rather than focussing on rapidly changing customer needs or ambitions.  It is not a coincidence that the UK recruitment sector has been at best flat in terms of growth over the past five years whilst the RPO sector has more than doubled in size over the same period.  The big question the recruitment industry has to answer is whether it is happy to continue be a tactical supplier of commoditised products or whether it can see a way of delivering true value for its customers as strategic partners around a broader talent agenda. 

So, whether you’re recovering from your celebrations at the Recruiter Awards or coming out of a deep slumber over the past decade, perhaps its time to wake up and smell the coffee, as they say.

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